@MaestroGood reply, good links, thank you. I can see now how under some conditions the sun could damage the sensor - or even burn a hole in it. This might be especially likely while using the monitor to compose the photo on a bright day.

But I doubt I would ever include the sun in a photo, set the shutter to 3 seconds (re fem2008, fem2008) and assume the result would be a good exposure. Not on a bright day anyway.

In the past I used an SLR with 50mm lens, polarizer (to knock off 1.5 stops) and film to take photos of the sun/sky at @ 1000/second @ F22. The result was acceptable. IIRC I didn’t spend much time looking through the viewfinder and I didn’t look directly at the sun. The sun was slightly (moderately?) obscured but visible through some clouds.

>"I doubt I would ever include the sun in a photo, set the shutter to 3 seconds and assume the result would be a good exposure"

Yes. But as you also mentioned, when composing via the LCD (as you plan to do), the sensor is exposed the entire time--from when you first enter "Live View" mode, through framing, focusing, and taking the picture, to when you flip the mirror back down--and that total time could easily be several seconds. (It was for me when I took that shot of Venus' transit.)

I think the sun as well as any strong light source can damage the sensor. I used to just take pics of bright lights when I first got my first ever digital camera and it damaged the sensor and all the pics I take looked over exposed regardless of the settings I selected.